DIY Prison Project

“I don’t know if you guys are aware of it, but, in prison, books like these are incredibly hard to access. The internet has made it hard for us to learn about books and acquire them, because we can’t access it. The result is that the books we tend to have access to are the kinds of books you might find in a grocery store mixed with a few hood novels and classics from no later than the 1960’s. Perhaps the most ironic example is that prison is the absolute last place you are going to encounter a work on prison abolition or antiracism, but the same problem also applies to experimental works, poetry, creative nonfiction, the works of less well-known writers, works published by small presses, and more modern literary works….”

Our idea is to showcase the work of prisoners whether we publish their work in Evening Street Review or not. To that end we have a committee made up of prisoners headed by Matthew Mendoza, whose title for his chapbook inspired the name of this project. For privacy reasons, we will not use prison numbers or locations on this page.

When we receive submissions from prisoners, we pass them on to the committee for comment and possible acceptance for publication on this page. Acceptances are then considered for publication in Evening Street Review.

A former prisoner and successful author, Ace Boggess, has consented to assist with the project.

Prisoners whose work has appeared or will appear in Evening Street Review:

Aaron Parker poem: “Live A Cide” #24, 61
Ace Boggess poem: “The Poker Players” #5, 30
Ace Boggess fiction: “The Morals of Marv’s Back Room” #17, 67
Akiva Isreal poem: “The Joke’s on You” and poem: “Hermaphrodite’s Fable” #35 120, 121
Brian K Hausfeld poem: “Mother Gaia” #38
Bruce Bennet poem: “Prison and T.V.” #34, 178
Bruce Bennet nonfiction: “From Life Sentence to Wastewater Treatment Operator” #35, 10
Childeric Maxy poem: “Just a Man” #31 21
Childeric Maxy poems “Prison Senses” p.29 “Poet or Prophet” #33 31
Dean Scelec fiction: “Dear Life” #23, 7
F.R.Martinez fiction “Contraband” #39
Gary Steciuk nonfiction: “Mary’s Cry” #25, 36
Jacob W Brown poem: “ My Passing Train” #6, 156
James Doyle nonfiction: “Are You Kidding?” #24 Inside front cover, 166, and back cover(see below)
James Schmidt poem: “Statues through time” #36 60
Jentren Boone writing as Yahya al-Deen “Came to my Senses” #40
Jim Kunkel fiction: “Mile Marker 17” #31, 68
Johnny L Wooten Editorial: “Non-Traditional Morality” #28, 6
Johnny L Wooten & Richard Vasquez nonfiction: “What to do with the Lost Boy of the Barrio” #32, 76
Kadaron Sledge poem: “Tissue” #21, 201
Kevin Cockman nonfiction: “Why Prisons Aren’t Correcting Anyone” #14, 30
Lance Ryan Ward nonfiction “Memories” #37
Marcello Gibbs poem: “Isolated from the real World” as facsimile copy on inside front cover of #28
Marcello Gibbs poem: “World Peace” #31, 39
Matthew Feeney poems: “Sun Shower” and “The Right to Write” #22, 12
Matthew Feeney nonfiction: “Hateful Stereotypes” #25, 142; poem: “Pax”145
Matthew Feeney poem: “What I long for…” #29, 6
Matthew Feeney poem: “My Tree House” #30, 100
Matthew Feeney nonfiction: “The Second Coming (Out)” #34, 114
Matthew Mendoza poem: “Short Path to Ecstasy” #20, 131
Matthew Mendoza fiction: “The H in Happiness” #27, 130
Matthew Mendoza “I am Five” #39
Robbie Westbrook poems: “Chosen Life” 73 and “Can’t Struggle” #36, 73
Ryan M Moser fiction: “The Farmer’s Pond” #20, 97
Ryan M Moser nonfiction: “How to Spin Straw into Gold” #28, 133
Ryan M Moser nonfiction “Your Body Tells a Story” #33, 69
Samuel Mullikin poems: “…Whole” 30 and “Home” #30, 30
Sean J White fiction: “Lost and Found” 87 and “At Your Convenience” #30, 90
Tom Kropp fiction: “Ferocious Foxy” #26, 36 (see below)
Tom Kropp fiction: “Bad Betty” #36, 119

Works accepted by the DIY Prison Project reviewers:

Anonymous “Civil Commitment: What it is and why you should care (or Uncivil Commitment)” and “FAC’s Covid Response was a Disaster”
Akiva Isreal “A Which Hunt” and “Missing Parts”
Artem Vaskan “Those Who Are Locked Up” (see below)
Ben Wilkins “Public Secrets” and “From Blank Pages to Public Spaces “
Ben Wilkins “Prison Madness” and “Love Letters: The Lost Art”
Bobby Thompson “MY SIDE OF THE TRACK” “America, America”
Brian Fuller “Life Long Learning”
Brian Knippers as chase cole “nickel empire” and “interminable affinity”
Bruce Bennet “HERE, BUT ALONE” “DEMOCRACY ABUSED”
Childeric Maxy “TIME MACHINE,” “WRESTLING WITH GOD,” “SADNESS AND ANXIETY,” “ Rose,” “WHEN DOES LOVE BEGINS ?” “JUST A MAN,” and “THE ROSE”
Dan Grote “Barbed Wire, Gun Towers,”“Spare Change,” “Low Mileage, Fair Prices” and “Home Décor”
Daniel Mopkins “Anchored to a Lighthouse,” “I write,” “Coloring Book”
David A Pickett “Wake Up” “Philosopher’s Song “Already Sick and Tired” “Doomsday Peppers”
Dennis Mintun “Strange Blue Planet” and “J. C.”
Douglas Gilding Florida Inmate Incarcerated for the Last 25 Years….
F.R.Martinez Goat Boy
Gervaiso Torres, Jr. “Lady Justice”
Ignacio H Carrillo writing as Leo Cardez “The Reign of COVID; or, the Year That Everything Changed”
Jacquis Leichman “Lost”
James Kunkel “Old Man’s Cabin” and “Shock Therapy”
James Schmidt “THEM” “TEARS WITHIN,” “LEAKS,”“HER HOPE,” “FACES,” and “THE GUARDIAN”
James Schmidt “Voices” and “WELCOME TO JOJO’S WORLD”
Jentren Boone writing as Yahya al-Deen “Withdrawn”
Johnny L Wooten “The Incarcerated Chronicles”
Johnny L Wooten “Unable to Save”
Kashawn Taylor “Under the Courthouse,” “Who Remembers Phone Numbers Anymore?”
Kenneth Andrus “To Die is Gain” and “Oh, Brother”
Linda Henning “High, Strange Albuquerque: How Communitties can Change,” “Private or State-Run Facilities: A Moral Dielmma,” and “The Lady of Shanidar”
Lance Ryan Ward Excerpts from journal
Marcello Gibbs “World Peace” (A Traditional Villanelle Poem), “Vote or Die,” “Family Roots,” “Mass Incarceration”
Mark Hartrick “Green Couch, Black Hole” (see below)
Matthew Epperson “Fumes and Prayers” and “Kicking Loops”
Matthew Feeney “Sandcastles,” “I didn’t try,” “Pax” and “Upon hearing they are trying to Civilly commit me…” (see below)
Matthew Feeney “Nineteen,” “Love,” and “My Tree House” “Church,” “My Window,” and “The Second Coming (Out)” “Sunday Best,” “A Speck of Sand,” and “Society’s Role in Perpetuating Hateful Stereotypes”
Michael Bankert “Flirting with Mortality”
Michael Caricofe “Whirligig”
Michael Weiss “My Dear Diary” and “The Villain”
Ramelle Kamack “The Gatekeepers” and “Why the Red Rose?”
Richard J Helton “Autobiography of Michael”
Robbie Westbrook “Nothings Real,” “No, Not Really,” “Choosen Life,” “Can’t Struggle,” and “Crazy Things”
Stephen Stoeltje “Spider Haiku,” “Go ln Beauty,” “A Dark Night of the Soul,” “A Rubber Chicken Life” and “Love ls Friendship Set To Music”
Tom Kropp “Prisoner Playwrights” and “Not Granpa”
Tony D Vick “Prison Staff Drug Dealers Have Captive Buyers”
Zakariyya Adam Chesser “Letter for Nikki Giovanni” and “The Broken Dancer”

Other work appears in links above by author and

Other work can be located by clicking the name of the author's work in the list above

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Evening Street Press strives to publish words with positive impact

Evening Street Press

DIY Prison Project

Prisoners whose work has appeared or will appear in Evening Street Review:

Sponsors

Works accepted by the DIY Prison Project reviewers:

Other work can be located by clicking the name of the author's work in the list above

Get Poetry, Fiction And Non-Fiction Delivered To Your DoorTwo Or More Times A Year

Evening Street Press strives to publish words with positive impact

Evening Street Press

DIY Prison Project​

Prisoners whose work has appeared or will appear in Evening Street Review:

Sponsors

Works accepted by the DIY Prison Project reviewers:

Other work can be located by clicking the name of the author's work in the list above

Get Poetry, Fiction And Non-Fiction Delivered To Your DoorTwo Or More Times A Year

DIY Prison Project